Have you ever wondered how scientists make discoveries or how plants grow? doTERRA Science for Kids answers these questions and more through modules, videos, experiments, and activities designed especially for kids. Check the doTERRA Website regularly for fun interactive worksheets and new opportunities for discovery that can be shared with friends and family.

doTERRA Science for Kids offers fun, educational experiments and activities that can be enjoyed by children of a wide range of ages. However, there are a couple of things to keep in mind as you broaden your scientific knowledge:

Before beginning any experiment or activity, make sure to have appropriate adult supervision. Some experiments involve heat or sharp objects, which must be used with care.

Introduction

The world is full of mysteries and questions. In order to answer these questions, scientists have developed a process that can be used to ask questions and find answers. This process is called the scientific method. The scientific method provides steps you can follow to find answers and document the process used so that others can repeat your experiment and test your findings. It all starts with asking a question.

Question

Every science experiment begins with a question, something you want to learn or explain. Scientific questions come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from basic questions like, “What happens when I drop essential oils into water?” to more complex questions such as, “How does an essential oil support my digestive system?” Once you have your question the scientific method can help you find the answer.

Background Research

The next step of the scientific method is background research. Background research helps you understand the basic science surrounding your question in addition to experiments other people have done to answer the same or similar questions. For example, if you want to learn what happens when you put essential oil in water you might want to research related topics such as the properties of different essential oils and what density is.

Hypothesis

A hypothesis is a prediction or an educated guess based on your research and previous knowledge. This guess is what you think is the answer to your question. For example, you might hypothesize, based on your density research, that all essential oils will float on water because other oils, such as vegetable oil, are less dense than water and float on water.

Experiment

To test your hypothesis, you will need to develop an experiment. An experiment is a step-by-step procedure you follow to test your hypothesis. An experiment will show whether or not your hypothesis is accurate. All experiments should be fair tests that only change one thing (also known as a variable) so that your results (or conclusions) are easy to prove by repeating the experiment. As you conduct your experiment make sure to record your results and observations so you have information to reference as you analyze the experiment in the next step.

Analysis

Once you have completed your experiment you will need to look over (also known as analyze) the results. Analysis looks for patterns or broken patterns in your results. For example, if you put drops of essential oil in water to learn if it floats you will find that some oils, like Lemon oil, float while others, like Wintergreen oil, sink.

Conclusion

Now that you have analyzed your results, you need to decide whether or not your experiment supports or does not support (refutes) your hypothesis. This is called your conclusion. In your conclusion you will summarize your experiment and share what those results mean for your hypothesis. In our example about essential oils and whether or not they float on water, the results would show that some oils float while others sink. This means your hypothesis was partially true, but not completely.

Share Your Results

The final step of any experiment is sharing your results and conclusion. The knowledge gained in conducting an experiment can help others as they work to learn more about the world that surrounds them. There are many ways to share experiment results. Many scientists write formal papers that they have published in scientific journals. In more simple terms, you can share your results of home science experiments with your friends and family by having them read your worksheet or, with your parent’s permission, by posting pictures to social media. If you decide to share your results online, make sure to use the hashtags #doterrascience and #doterrascienceforkids so the doTERRA Science Blog can see the awesome work you’ve been doing!